Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt was positive on Joey Carbery's World Cup chances after the Munster out-half went off with an ankle injury during yesterday's routine 29-10 World Cup warm-up win over Italy at the Aviva Stadium.
Carbery, Dave Kearney, Andrew Conway, Jordi Murphy, and Kieran Marmion scored the tries for the home side, but Schmidt's attention afterward immediately focused on the injury toll, with the World Cup in Japan just forty days away.
"The good news is there's no fracture. It's a bit puffy on the inside of his left ankle - we're going to give that 24 to 48 hours just for the swelling to go down. If we need to get a picture of it we will.
"Obviously, he's had an x-ray and been cleared of a fracture so that's the good news on Joey. We don't have anyone else who's of major concern."
Fitness was a concern for the Irish Head Coach, however, with many players rusty after some time off.
"[It's the] first game of the season, there's a few lung injuries, guys who couldn't get enough oxygen in, and one particularly that Rhys [Ruddock] suffered when he got hit quite hard after giving a scoring pass.
We're hopefully relatively unscathed, but Joey will take 24 to 48 hours to know for sure."
Devin Toner's ankle was also causing minor concern - but Schmidt said after the game that any signs of limping from the Leinster man were not an issue.
"He just rolled it to be honest. The more he was on it the more he was walking it off. Certainly in the changing room now he's walking around without a limp so I would predict that he would be fine."
Ireland kickstart their Rugby World Cup campaign against Scotland on September 22nd in Yokohama, with further pool matches against hosts Japan, Russia, and Samoa.
Next up though is a warm-up clash with Eddie Jones' England on Saturday week August 24th at Twickenham. That game precedes a warm-up double-header against Wales in Cardiff and Dublin respectively.
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